The Plight of the Feral Cats of Greece

Many visitors to Greece are struck by the sight of legions of cats roaming the streets, dozing in the sun at archaeological sites, and loitering around tavernas looking for a handout. [Dogs also abound.] This is so common that many travel sites remark on it and offer advice to travelers about what to do when approached by stray animals, which they claim are generally healthy and unthreatening. Some find this a charming aspect of the travel experience, and Web sites and blogs abound with photos such as the ones you see on this page. Others, however, have less pleasant experiences.

Many of the problems facing animals in Greece are worldwide problems—abuse, neglect, inhumane farming and slaughtering practices, abandonment, hoarding—but traditional attitudes toward animals and lackluster (or nonexistent) governmental involvement have created a crisis situation in Greece. Travelers seeking a holiday in the sun encounter diseased, starving, and injured animals that seem to receive no care and to belong to no one. This is especially troubling to visitors who come from countries that closely regulate pet ownership and licensing and are quick to impose sanctions on neglect or abuse. Tourists often feed stray cats but after the tourist season the animals must fend for themselves.

It is typical that pets are allowed to roam at will. Spaying and neutering is not the rule, widely considered to be unnatural, and the inevitable result is frequent litters of unwanted kittens, many of which are killed outright or thrown into the trash. Abandonment of unwanted pets is also widespread, both by citizens and by tourists and visitors who take up with animals during their stay only to discard them when they leave. Stray animals are, at best, ignored and, at worst, brutalized and killed. Poisoning is very common. It is widely believed, although denied by authorities, that thousands of stray dogs and cats were poisoned to clean up the streets and parks before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Municipal shelters are full of animals in appalling condition, with little or no medical care and minimal food and shelter. Many localities have no facilities at all.

As a rule, cats are not valued, even considered to be vermin. They are preyed on by dogs and other predators and killed by householders whose property they invade. Malnutrition, exposure, and contagious disease take a heavy toll. Ocular and respiratory infections are endemic.

After its inclusion in the European Union, additional pressure was placed on the Greek government to bring its animal policies in line with those of the EU and to enforce existing laws. In 2007 the European Commission reported Greek authorities to the European Court of Justice for continuing lack of action for animal welfare. A commission statement added: “The decision to take this action against Greece follows persistent shortcomings identified in the field of animal welfare over a number of years. The standard of animal welfare in Greece remains below par and the necessary legislation has not been adequately implemented. Therefore, the commission has no alternative but to refer the case to the Court of Justice.”

As a member of the European Union, Greece is bound to wide-ranging EU regulations regarding the treatment of animals. The EU regulates the transport of animals and issues “passports” to traveling pets. Welfare groups sometimes are able to transport strays to other EU countries for adoption. Unfortunately, they have been hampered by widespread rumors that the animals are wanted for laboratory experiments or fur rather than as pets and have had to battle with a resistant bureaucracy. There have been numerous instances of officials delaying the removal of animals from Greece.

The response to government inaction is the formation of many small shelters and welfare societies by both Greek citizens and expatriates. A number of these efforts are affiliated with groups from the UK, Germany, Scandinavia, The Netherlands, elsewhere in Europe, and even Canada. As a rule these groups are focused on one island or locality. Some have adopted colonies of feral cats and follow trap-neuter-return programs, treating diseased animals, giving inoculations, and neutering to control breeding, often with the help of volunteer veterinarians and technicians from sponsoring countries. Local groups also attempt to find permanent homes for kittens and cats that are tame enough to be adopted. Feeding stations are established that both sustain the cats and provide a means of monitoring their condition and numbers. Some hotels will allow feeding stations to be set up on their grounds.

Education outreach includes the distribution of pamphlets, referrals for veterinary care, and programs for schoolchildren to demonstrate proper care for pets and also to inculcate compassionate attitudes toward animals. Other efforts involve write-in campaigns to pressure the Greek government to enforce existing animal control laws and to make acts of abuse prosecutable offenses.

There is evidence that programs are becoming effective. Gradually the resistance to neutering is waning. In some localities, attitudes are more benevolent and local customs include care for homeless cats. Faced with a deluge of negative publicity, Greek animal advocates are working to rehabilitate their country’s shameful image in the eyes of the world.

64 Comments

I CAN SEE AND ALSO HEAR SURE,THAT ALL PEOPLE FROM ENGLAND REPORT THE BAD OR ” SOMETHING BAD” FOR THEM FROM GREECE!
WHEN THE SUMMERS ENGLISH PEOPLE ARE HERE ON OUR ISLANDS WE DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO TO STOP YOU FROP THE CRAZY THINGS THAT YOU DO AND OTHER PEOPLE ARE SCARED TO CIRCULATE.
IT’S SHAME ON YOU IF YOU DELETE THIS!!!
P.S. I HAD A DOG FROM THE ROAD FROM GERMAN TURIST WHO LET THE ANIMAL UNCLAIMED.

And I thought Greece was a civilized country. Sick and backwards thinking, ignorant, cruel. Our cat is part of our family and is much loved and spoiled as they should be. Right at this very minute he is all curled up in his very own bean bag chair, sound asleep and as cute as can be! I wish there was something I could do to help the felines in Greece, I will pray for them and the people.

Greece is full of civilised people who created 100s of animal protection organizations, I am a member in one of them, and trying to fight an owfully corrupted government. There ha? been a lot of change from the recent years that most peopl? “used” animals instead of cohabiting with them. And for yr info I collected my cat from the streets of downtown Athens. Just take a look at this man in Syros, a vet, what he has done up to now, without any official help and how he is changing people’s sick and backwards thinking. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154621080063498&set=a.10150511817818498.396152.796123497&type=3&theater Some bad people in your country doesn’t make your whole country uncivilised, right? Take care!

I am English, but my girlfriend is Greek, and back home in her family house in Athens they have a cat who is a member of their family. They love her as if one of their children, or sisters. The Greeks are good to the animals in the streets, I’ve heard plenty of stories of them playing with them, feeding them and providing them with bedding and such things.

There are some cruel people, but there are in every country, I know people who murder the squirrels in the local park in my town, not to mention pigeons.

I visited Greece when I was eleven years old and couldn’t believe how skinny the cats were. I compared their skinny backs to my school ruler. Now I am 47 years old, and continue to see the same problem going on which is ‘amartia’ which means karmically no good in the Greek language to allow God’s creatures to continue being left to suffer. lots of love

I go to Greece every year. Our family rexcued a very sick kitten and then returned the next summer to discover her sleeping in the front yard of the same house we rented when we found her. We decided to take her back to the US. It can be done and is not expensive or difficult. She rememebered us and was willing to let us handle her. We brought her back to the US successfully when she was about 1 year. She is still a bit skettish but is loving and now has a brother cat here in the US. I know it is only one cat but she is loving even though she is feral. I beleive that she able to be tamed considering that she craves human attention.

that is the right motivation and thats exactly what we need. i go to greece every year too, for a month, and there are cats that seek human attention and that want it. it is not rare that a stray cat comes to me and rubs its pack on my leg, purring.what you did is a blessing and i thank you very much for it.

Thank u 4 your kindness. I live kn new bern, nc. I just adopted 3 kittens. They had characteristics i have never experienced b4. I have adopted many cats over my 72 years. The 2 fms 1 m displayed actions never observed b4. I then watched cats 101 yesterday. The program was talking about greek cats. Walo…my kittens characteristics to a tee. I know i am in 4 many years of new Greek traits. Never too old 2 learn.

Ri lived in Greece for a total of 7 years on an island ! Evia! In the agean sea. This islands runs parallel and very close to mainland , it is attached to the mainland by a bridge in halkitha. But ok, the reason I am posting, I had a parade of 27 cats over these years. All wild All were hungry and all were sweet and besutiful. No vaccinations for cat leukemia or distemper. Or othe cat disease ( some could be transmitted to humans) No med for wounds from fighting with others cats. No spade or neutering exceptbin in halkitha, the the only way we could get to Athens was by bud – no cats allowed.. I had a total of 27 of them and all of these cats showed up at my door as kittens. And when they were growing up they used to bring other strays home with them- like they would say, \”hey guys, come on home with me. The cat lady will feed you and give you safe quarters to get out of the ran, snow and cold\”. These cats head bonked me.and showed love and appreciation for my help, they killed scorpions, snakes , rats and mice from around my house . I nevrer tried to tame them, or did I coddle them like I
wanted to. They were having none gofer that. None of them lived to be older than a year old. I would hear them scream likein the night and I knew they had been poisoned . My heart ached for the plight of these cats and also the packs of dogs roaming the streets of athens, ops dumped out on the streets because they did not remain puppies. To me it eww really sick. The people did not seem to know Tharp these roaming ack off ogs , if hungry enough, outfit easily pull down a child for dinner. I noticed a sharp decrease in the cat ad rat population, and the increase of dogs in nhalkitha, the capital city of evia. Shame on you people. You can\’t keep ignoring this problem. Animal abus is ramped in Greece – like tying your donkey up in a fed, with more shade and no water, sun shining down on them al afternoon while their owner sleeps in a nice shaft you place,out of the sun. Again. Shhame on you people.

I have just come back from Lindos where there were many beautiful cats, mostly being fed by the tourists. I looked on the internet last night as I wanted to find out a bit more about the cats in the area but unfortunately came across an article which claims that the cats are poisoned at the end of the tourist season. I really hope this isn’t true as it is quite alarming:

Yes but what happens when they leave? Survival of the poor animals is very hard , I live in Melissi Xylokastro, and we feed strays as our own cat eats, but sadly enough we went on a two week trip ( leaving someone to feed them of course) and while we were away my neighbor killed 3 kittens brutally shot them and mamed another , unfortunately I can’t report him for fear of retaliation , the kitten needs medical help but I’m retired and can’t afford it, I’m so heartbroken

Jackie, that’s awful. Thanks for bringing the article to our attention. It confirms what we said in our piece, i.e., that the people of the communities in question don’t generally believe in spaying and neutering, and that poisoning is rife. It seems particularly awful, though, that this may be done routinely in some places at the end of every tourist season. It would be wonderful if more cat-loving tourists like Kim (see above) could take back a cat with them (and neuter them!) when they go home.

I agree and now of course I wish I had brought the kitten home with me. I loved Lindos but on learning this it makes me feel that the beauty is a complete facade and I never want to go back there.

What can we do, will writing to the tourist board help? It’s obviously something they want to keep quiet about so they can promote Rhodes as a ‘cat loving’ community as illustrated in the Cats of Greece calendar.

Hi, Jackie,
I think writing to the tourist board is a great idea, especially since you’ve been there and went from really positive feelings about Lindos to having such a negative feeling about the place. In face, there might not be anything you could do that would help more!

It’s really disturbing, isn’t it, that they sell a calendar capitalizing on the cat population and then turn around and do this to the kitties.

What I heard Jackie, is similar story too yours, all be it, the Cats are KILLED in a different way. In this day & age, I find that appalling. When I go too Spain, like other people I feed the strays, it is a complex, some of the people there also have thier own cats, but also feed the strays. When this lady told me, that in Greece after the tourist season is over, all the stray Cats are thrown into the pool too drown, that is so SICKENING. Should NEVER EVER happenx

I for one LOVE CATS & DOGS all Animals. I could NEVER walk past any Animal that was hungry, I could NOT do that. They are so obviously use too be being fed by people, as soon as we walk by, one cat came towards us, then another, then another, ONLY 3. After our meal, I gave them what was left,. Then the next day, I cooked them a large chicken breast 2 sausagesxI know by the look of the cats, 2 are the same one’s, since last April, the other one is only about 5 months old. In good conditionx

Dear Anglo-americans,dear honorable gentlemen,before you blame Greece and greek people as cruel to animals and propose to boycott greek turism,do you know that SHOOTING FERAL CATS is LEGAl in the UK and in some US states????Do you know that the Swedes haunt bunnies from parks,to use them as bio-fuels?? Stop this fairy tal that Greeks are cruel to animals.Search all around the web and find dozens of forums from ‘civilized’ countries,who try to find ways to kill their neighbor’s cat because she shit their garden and damaged their precious car!Your countries and the society doesn’t really care about cats and dogs suffering…they protect only the private property.Which means that in OHIO fro example,if someone shoots a stray cat it will be OK,but if he kills his neighbors cat it will be a crime.This is complete Hypocrisis. The problem is universal.Animal cruelty and cat cruelty is Universal.Deranged people who don’t want cats to trespass their pathetic gardens(as if Nature belongs to them) is also Universal.Go protest about your animal abuse in your own yard first,and them move to Greece.

Hey..If all you can do with your idle comments is attempt to dilute the good work of caring people around the globe who visit Greece,then I suggest you confine yourself to your backyard and kick your own trash about.
I,ve just returned from that dross-pit of animal welfare and it is as subscribers vouchsafe a calamitous country for any conscionable individual to attest.

You are correct. Individuals noted throwing new born kittens out a window in texas. License noted and reported. Individuals arrested and awaiting jail time, INDIVIDUAL SAW NO WRONG IN HER ACTIONS. GOOD AND BAD EVERYWHERE. We are the silent avocates.

Greece is one of the few countriew that has strays because we DON’T KILL them. We neuter them examine them and set them free again.I know that most of you people who freaked about the cats and dogs come from countries that don’t have strays because your government KILLS strays. So please just think which is better hard life or no life….

“To starve,even after neutering,,,is abominable”
While killing healthy animals just because I don’t like to see them on my street is allright??? It’s better to proactively take the cats and dogs who have no physical problem and put them down???
I ‘m sorry but I think that the abominable thing here is the assumption that you have the right to kill innocent creatures because it upsets you aesthetically!!!

I’ve been living in Athens for two months and to be honest I really haven’t seen that many strays! Especially not on the abundance that the foreigners claim there to be. The cats I have seen look well fed quite large and relatively tame. There is a lady in the area of Kolonaki [central Athens] where a large group of cats are fed daily by herself and her friends. These cats were Huge and visit the vet regularly. Let’s not forget that Greek cats are descendants of Egyptian cats whereby they are Naturally slender and athletic. Though not to contradict myself it would be good to see less strays on the streets even if they do seem perfectly content to me! So Please Stop with your Vulgar attitudes towards the Greek people. Instead of bloody whining GET OVER HERE and DO something. Thank You!

I met many street animals in Athens and throughout Greece. Like my home in Canada, some were human and some were not. The dogs were almost 100% neutered and respected though a bit mangey. The cats I worried for as they seemed a bit at a disadvantage. When one travels one realizes that customs surrounding many things are very different but in this case animals are, like us, an emotional and sensitive group of individuals occupying small opportunities for existence. The fact that people routinely abuse, slaughter and consume these “lesser than” beings or the fact that people deify and then allow their deities to die eating plastic bags as in India, for example, doesn’t mean things should stay the way they are. So I can say with conviction that to be polite one should at least refrain from making sweeping generalizations. In Canada and the USA huge numbers of shelter pets are killed daily and even in India for example cows are who are sacred die and are killed in conditions of great cruelty hourly. People are working to stop this, as they should comtinue to stop any cruelty to any living thing anywhere. Our work to overcome our inherent flaws, continues in an imperfect world, everywhere.

I’m from Greece and we don’t treat bad to animals.
We do have many cats wandering in the streets. However, they are feral cats who are born in the wild and used living like this. Some people even feed the cats they see in their neighborhood by leaving food and water out of their house.
The cats we have in our houses are like members of our family. I have a cat and my family treat him like a baby!
My friends who have cats too, LOVE them.
Also, Greek cats belong to the Aegean cat breed which is a naturally slender breed.

Keystone I’d love to send you a video,everyone here doesn’t treat them well, I’m in Greece too and a neighbor mamed a 2 1/2 month old kitten and killed 3 others while I was away, now she needs medical help tat I can’t afford 🙁

As much as I have been heartbroken in Rhodes seeing all the stray cats and attempting to feed then all, I believe that most of them are fed by the locals In closed season, I wanted to take a cat back to the uk but unfortunately I have another male at home that would not allow another in our house, I am heartbroken but have decided to support the Rhodes cat society that provides feeding stations and nueturing program’s, I would love to eventually do more, but I would like the hotel to help out also as they are sometimes the problem with removing then to remote areas away from their premises to fend for themselves and otherwise starve! This sickens and upsets me, I may come back next year but not for the hotel for the cats.

I have been to the Cyclades islands twice this year. It seems the only island (that we visited) where the cats and dogs are well-treated is Paros (there is a neutering programme and many residents put out food and water for the cats). We were told that there are no stray dogs on the island and the vet gives discounted neutering. One of the volunteers told me they try to neuter about 1500 cats each year. There is a collection box in a very public area. Most of the cats we saw looked well-fed and in good health. This was in strict contrast to the other islands, some of which were overrun by strays, kittens with bad cases of cat flu, emaciated animals, desperate for water as well as food. Some well-meaning locals tried to put out food and water for these animals and I met an amazing Greek woman on Mykonos who spends all of her money looking after the stray cats there. She told horrific stories of shopkeepers and restaurant owners poisoning, burning cats, throwing them into dustbins, etc. She also recounted that one of these people tried to strangle her and threatened to kill her.
I wanted to set up a petition and try to find out who to send it to the relevant person in the Greek government. It seems surely the best way to encourage tourism, would be to set up a proper neutering programme to address the problem.

Thank you for your report on your experiences. It’s good to hear that the authorities and volunteers on Paros have a responsible and effective program in place. You’re to be commended for taking such an interest, and I hope that your petition helps matters. Please feel free to post a link to it here in the comments.

Having lived in Greece for approximately 23 years in a big city and the 2nd biggest city and apparently having visited many villages around those cities and all over the country, all I can say is that this is one of the most disgraceful articles I’ve ever seen. It makes a 2 percent situation or less look like it is 95% or more in terms of cruelty towards the animals in Greece. Please do the world a favor and delete this LIE of this web site. You mislead people! Tourists who went there for a week or 2 and make assumptions about the whole year or decade that they are absent from that land, is just showing how ‘light’ the approach is to this delicate matter. I’ve seen and been in contact with plenty of stray animals in my life and it was a great privilege.
First of all see your own countries how they REALLY treat animals and how they ‘PRETEND’ that they treat them. I refer to those shelters (animal concentration camps) that kill animals. Shelters that have a policy of killing animals boast about how much they love and care for those animals but try to keep quiet about KILLING them. I am sorry can you not see that this ‘kindness’ leads to certain DEATH? WHEN THOSE SHELTERS WILL EQUALLY BOAST FIRST ABOUT KILLING AND THEN ABOUT CARING (as this care leads to death if people don’t get the animals from the shelter in time), THEN YOU WILL SEE THE TRUTH ABOUT THOSE SHELTERS. This is called hypocrisy or something that has to do with limited perception of a situation to put it nicely.
If it makes you feel better killing animals because you don’t want to live with them and naming this caring for their quality of life, that’s fine do as you wish and I do feel for the poor animals that have to go through this.
If you don’t understand that killing an animal is not nicer for the animal than letting it live as its SURVIVAL INSTINCT ‘CRIES OUT’ NO MATTER HOW ILL an animal may be, you need to do something about you, not Greece. It is not the Greeks who have a problem. Respect their rights on their land as you would want them to respect yours. Furthermore, some of you might be trying to be practising Christians. I have news for you! Have you ever tried to find out if it is acceptable or not from a Christian point of view to neuter/spay animals or kill them for such reasons? Dig deep and you will see it is unacceptable yet most of you just make the mistake of listening to science and going against:
Psalms 104 24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
Greece has had a relatively high percentage of people who believe in God. Please respect their rights on their land if you cannot do it in your country. Most Greeks who might be Christians might not even know what I just mentioned, but anyone who seeks seriously will find the relevant information from the Church’s perspective. You may not be able to understand why this would be better for animals and people. You don’t have to understand everything. Live and let the Greeks and their stray animals live on their land and stop hypocritically criticizing them.

The problem of human cruelty towards animals has to be addressed with actions towards or against humans, not animals. Animals are victims and you instead of dealing with the offender, ‘punish’ the POTENTIAL victims.

Someone might have ‘accidentally deleted this comment as it was posted again a little while ago.

Having lived in Greece for approximately 23 years in a big city and the 2nd biggest city and apparently having visited many villages around those cities and all over the country, all I can say is that this is one of the most disgraceful articles I’ve ever seen. It makes a 2 percent situation or less look like it is 95% or more in terms of cruelty towards the animals in Greece. Please do the world a favor and delete this LIE of this web site. You mislead people! Tourists who went there for a week or 2 and make assumptions about the whole year or decade that they are absent from that land, is just showing how ‘light’ the approach is to this delicate matter. I’ve seen and been in contact with plenty of stray animals in my life and it was a great privilege.
First of all see your own countries how they REALLY treat animals and how they ‘PRETEND’ that they treat them. I refer to those shelters (animal concentration camps) that kill animals. Shelters that have a policy of killing animals boast about how much they love and care for those animals but try to keep quiet about KILLING them. I am sorry can you not see that this ‘kindness’ leads to certain DEATH? WHEN THOSE SHELTERS WILL EQUALLY BOAST FIRST ABOUT KILLING AND THEN ABOUT CARING (as this care leads to death if people don’t get the animals from the shelter in time), THEN YOU WILL SEE THE TRUTH ABOUT THOSE SHELTERS. This is called hypocrisy or something that has to do with limited perception of a situation to put it nicely.
If it makes you feel better killing animals because you don’t want to live with them and naming this caring for their quality of life, that’s fine do as you wish and I do feel for the poor animals that have to go through this.
If you don’t understand that killing an animal is not nicer for the animal than letting it live as its SURVIVAL INSTINCT ‘CRIES OUT’ NO MATTER HOW ILL an animal may be, you need to do something about you, not Greece. It is not the Greeks who have a problem. Respect their rights on their land as you would want them to respect yours. Furthermore, some of you might be trying to be practising Christians. I have news for you! Have you ever tried to find out if it is acceptable or not from a Christian point of view to neuter/spay animals or kill them for such reasons? Dig deep and you will see it is unacceptable yet most of you just make the mistake of listening to science and going against:
Psalms 104 24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
Greece has had a relatively high percentage of people who believe in God. Please respect their rights on their land if you cannot do it in your country. Most Greeks who might be Christians might not even know what I just mentioned, but anyone who seeks seriously will find the relevant information from the Church’s perspective. You may not be able to understand why this would be better for animals and people. You don’t have to understand everything. Live and let the Greeks and their stray animals live on their land and stop hypocritically criticizing them.

You waited just an hour for your comment to be approved, on a Sunday night in the U.S. when none of us were at work, before accusing us of deleting your comments. (“Deleting” means that the comments were posted and then taken down. Yours were merely being held for approval by a moderator, as are all comments on our site.) As you can see, they are all here, including your repeated resubmissions.

Having lived in Greece for approximately 23 years in a big city and the 2nd biggest city and apparently having visited many villages around those cities and all over the country, all I can say is that this is one of the most disgraceful articles I’ve ever seen. It makes a 2 percent situation or less look like it is 95% or more in terms of cruelty towards the animals in Greece. Please do the world a favor and delete this LIE of this web site. You mislead people! Tourists who went there for a week or 2 and make assumptions about the whole year or decade that they are absent from that land, is just showing how ‘light’ the approach is to this delicate matter. I’ve seen and been in contact with plenty of stray animals in my life and it was a great privilege.
First of all see your own countries how they REALLY treat animals and how they ‘PRETEND’ that they treat them. I refer to those shelters (animal concentration camps) that kill animals. Shelters that have a policy of killing animals boast about how much they love and care for those animals but try to keep quiet about KILLING them. I am sorry can you not see that this ‘kindness’ leads to certain DEATH? WHEN THOSE SHELTERS WILL EQUALLY BOAST FIRST ABOUT KILLING AND THEN ABOUT CARING (as this care leads to death if people don’t get the animals from the shelter in time), THEN YOU WILL SEE THE TRUTH ABOUT THOSE SHELTERS. This is called hypocrisy or something that has to do with limited perception of a situation to put it nicely.
If it makes you feel better killing animals because you don’t want to live with them and naming this caring for their quality of life, that’s fine do as you wish and I do feel for the poor animals that have to go through this.
If you don’t understand that killing an animal is not nicer for the animal than letting it live as its SURVIVAL INSTINCT ‘CRIES OUT’ NO MATTER HOW ILL an animal may be, you need to do something about you, not Greece. It is not the Greeks who have a problem. Respect their rights on their land as you would want them to respect yours. Furthermore, some of you might be trying to be practising Christians. I have news for you! Have you ever tried to find out if it is acceptable or not from a Christian point of view to neuter/spay animals or kill them for such reasons? Dig deep and you will see it is unacceptable yet most of you just make the mistake of listening to science and going against:
Psalms 104 24 in wisdom hast thou made them all:
Greece has a relatively high percentage of people who believe in God. Please respect their rights on their land if you cannot do it in your country. Most Greeks who might be Christians might not even know what I just mentioned, but anyone who seeks seriously will find the relevant information from the Church’s perspective. You may not be able to understand why this would be better for animals and people. You don’t have to understand everything. Live and let the Greeks and their stray animals live on their land and stop hypocritically criticizing them.

Having lived in Greece for approximately 23 years in a big city and the 2nd biggest city and apparently having visited many villages around those cities and all over the country, all I can say is that this is one of the most disgraceful articles I’ve ever seen. It makes a 2 percent situation or less look like it is 95% or more in terms of cruelty towards the animals in Greece. Please do the world a favor and delete this LIE of this web site. You mislead people! Tourists who went there for a week or 2 and make assumptions about the whole year or decade that they are absent from that land, is just showing how ‘light’ the approach is to this delicate matter. I’ve seen and been in contact with plenty of stray animals in my life and it was a great privilege.
First of all see your own countries how they REALLY treat animals and how they ‘PRETEND’ that they treat them. I refer to those shelters (animal concentration camps) that kill animals. Shelters that have a policy of killing animals boast about how much they love and care for those animals but try to keep quiet about KILLING them. I am sorry can you not see that this ‘kindness’ leads to certain DEATH? WHEN THOSE SHELTERS WILL EQUALLY BOAST FIRST ABOUT KILLING AND THEN ABOUT CARING (as this care leads to death if people don’t get the animals from the shelter in time), THEN YOU WILL SEE THE TRUTH ABOUT THOSE SHELTERS. This is called hypocrisy or something that has to do with limited perception of a situation to put it nicely.
If it makes you feel better killing animals because you don’t want to live with them and naming this caring for their quality of life, that’s fine do as you wish and I do feel for the poor animals that have to go through this.
If you don’t understand that killing an animal is not nicer for the animal than letting it live as its SURVIVAL INSTINCT ‘CRIES OUT’ NO MATTER HOW ILL an animal may be, you need to do something about you, not Greece. It is not the Greeks who have a problem. Respect their rights on their land as you would want them to respect yours. Furthermore, some of you might be trying to be practising Christians. I have news for you! Have you ever tried to find out if it is acceptable or not from a Christian point of view to neuter/spay animals or kill them for such reasons? Dig deep and you will see it is unacceptable yet most of you just make the mistake of listening to science and going against:
Psalms 104 24 in wisdom hast thou made them all:
Greece has a relatively high percentage of people who believe in God. Please respect their rights on their land if you cannot do it in your country. Most Greeks who might be Christians might not even know what I just mentioned, but anyone who seeks seriously will find the relevant information from the Church’s perspective. You may not be able to understand why this would be better for animals and people. You don’t have to understand everything. Live and let the Greeks and their stray animals live on their land and stop hypocritically criticizing them.

April 1, 2015–First time visiting Greece. In Thessaloniki…As an animal lover, I always look for animals and notice strays on the street. Didn’t see any stray dogs, though saw many as pets. Did see many stray cats. While they appeared dirty from living on the streets, they did not seem skinny or malnourished. Not to say they all wouldn’t be better off in loving homes…Greece is like any nation….with people who love animals and wish the best for homeless pets and then also people who have a callous attitude toward them and the few that abuse them. Local/regional or national plans for non lethal ways of helping the animals is a good place to start. Lovely place to visit….lovely place to help cats!

We just returned from Athens, Nafplio, Santorini & Mykonos.
I was disturbed by all the homeless dogs in Athens– they just lie about on sidewalks & in squares & are dirty and sad-looking. I didn’t see anyone feeding them. I did see someone feeding cats.
In Nafplio the stray problem seems much better managed. In Santorini, there were stray dogs all over the place, sleeping out in the cold & rain. Most disturbing was that on nearby Thirasia, where there’s a seasonal trade by the harbor, a restaurant owner told us the cats starve in the winters when the restaurants close. we asked why he didn’t get them sterilized & he said it was too expensive to take them to the mainland for that. We’d definitely contribute to a spay/neuter effort for that island.

In Mykonos, we did not find the woman who takes care of the cats although we did hear an American tourist complaining about how stupid she was to do that. Does anyone know how to reach her to donate? Sterilization should always accompany feeding or you’re helping with reproduction. I will say that I’m thankful not to have seen puppies & kittens anywhere, but maybe they’re more easily killed.

We are currently visiting Greece. What a beautiful Country. So sad that such a great tourist destination is spoilt by the sight of so many starving strays, cats as well as dogs. I’ve been unable to finish any meal at restaurants since there are always hungry eyes staring up at me. Instead I ask for take aways and feed the cats afterwards. Never forget, ” The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way it treats its animals”. No Greece! No Europe! This has to stop please. I won’t be a tourist to Europe again until it does.

We have just returned from Athens and were completely impressed by the kindness the Greeks displayed towards these street animals. The cats didn’t hide in shadows, they marched down the middle of the street, tails held high and accepted the many pets that came from tourists and residents alike.

We saw many Greeks (usually older men, actually) playing with the cats, the cats were friendly and we thought it a great testament to the Greek character. The dogs were also friendly, they would lay purposely in the path of tourists so they would get pets. The restaurant we frequented said they fed the cats old fish at the end of each day and cats knew to gather up and wait for their meal. As I said, the animals didn’t run from people, they actively approached humans and that tells me they are confident they will be treated kindly by the Greek people. In the states, a stray animal will run in the shadows, fearful of humans. Not so in Athens. These animals are sure of themselves and expect people will be nice to them. And, they are.

We can all sit back and rant and rave about the deplorable conditions that animals endure not only in Greece, but most of the surrounding countries or we can stand up and fight like Marin Friends of Ferals, Janet Williams and her crew of three, over there now making a difference. Maybe it’s a small dent, but it’s a dent. She’s also involved in helping the plight of uncared for animals in Turkey. This is a nonprofit group based in Marin County in California. We have one of the best programs in Marin and in Sonoma for feral cats and also for dogs. Sonoma has Forgotten Felines. Look them up. Fantastic work they are doing. Making a big difference. And this is a very wealthy area and still there is such a need. If people would spay/neuter, it would not undo all of the hard work that is being done to help the helpless.
Janet is having a meltdown witnessing what is going on over there but she’s there and she’s going to be back and she’s making a difference with her wonderful support group that also is on this journey. You go girls!

A half or distorted thruth is defined as a lie.
Yes, there are many stray cats and dogs in Greece, but 90% of the time you will notice they are well fed. Many Greek towns have also put in place programs where they administer core vaccination shots for dogs. Each time a dog has been vaccinated, a collar indicating ‘vaccinated’ is put on that dog. This applies for many Greek villages as well.
Animal “shelters” exist in Greece, they belong to the municipalities and they are overcrowded. Conditions there are usually worse than living on the streets. Even well kept “shelters” keep dogs in confined spaces, making a dog’s life miserable. Therefore, there are animal welfare groups that advocate for dogs to be released from these animal prisons. The law (as far as I know) states that only the dogs that are considered ‘dangerous’ (i.e., there are reports they have attacked people) must be kept in a shelter and never be released (unless adopted by someone of course).
In Greece, UNLIKE other EU countries and the US, it is ILLEGAL to euthanise a healthy animal. This is a much healthier attitude in my opinion than killing healthy animals and pretending you are a nation of animal lovers because your streets are “clean” of strays.
Unfortunately it is true that in Greece, as well as in each and every other country in the world, there are some subhumans who abuse and kill stray animals, but this is not the norm. The last couple of years the law re: animal torture/killing has become particularly strict and there are a couple of subhumans who received harsh sentences for their cruelties on animals. It is also true that before the Olympics 2004 in Greece many animals were killed by the state. This is of course a very sad story, but all those that love animals have spoken against it, but haven’t managed to prevent it while it was happening or bring someone to court for it, as it was the Greek state that performed this and as you understand….things are not that easy when you have the state against you.
That’s all I guess. In a nutshell, this article is not in any way representative of what is happening in Greece, there are many animal lovers here and even those who have animals at home tend for the strays as well.
Conclusion: all of us who care for the animals, let’s try to get involved either in organised groups, or even with something smaller than that, for example care for a couple of strays, donate to an animal cause, speak up, etc. Every little thing each one of us can do in their town/neighbourhood/country can gradually change a lot.
Also, fellow mates from the EU and the US, please please please start SPEAKING UP and PROTESTING about the killing of healthy animals in shelters.

I just returned from 12 amazing days traveling around Greece and the islands. I was amazed at how many “city cats” there were. I photographed many of them, along with thanking them for allowing me to get great photos by loving on them. So many of them were starved for human attention. Out of about 200 I saw through my journey, I only saw 2 that I would consider as sickly. One had a sore on it’s side about the size of a quarter (I put antibiotic ointment on it), and the other had a slight case of conjunctivitis. I have 3 strictly indoor cats in my home in the US, and they are definitely a part of my family. If i could have brought home the kitten I found in Meteora at one of the Monasteries, I would have in a second. I held him for about 30 minutes while touring the beautiful sight. I was told by one restaurant owner that they provide 2 meat meals per day to the cats that are around their establishments. I witnessed this in action a few times. I also saw several places that had quilts laying out with water dishes for them. I saw a lot of respect for the “city cats” from the locals. I saw more hatred and stupidity from tourists. I felt like knocking the bejeezus out of a french tourist who kicked at a dogs head when it was approaching while he was standing eating. Out of the dozen cats that I sat and petted, I only saw and pet one that was not fixed. So apparently something is working over there in caring for them, and thanking them for helping control the rodent population. I have been to many cities in the USA where I see starving, and sickly dogs and cats that are obviously not cared for as much as those in Greece. There is no easy answer to this, and believe me I don’t have one. All I know is that places around the world could learn from how Greece has begun handling this situation.

It IS a problem, but also it IS possible to rehome too. I met a little cat on holiday this year, and went back to get her. It took some planning (finding her again out of holiday season), arranging her vet visit in Greece for checkup and rabies vaccination… then the 21 day wait for that before taking her out of the country (a cat charity helped me with fostering during the waiting period) then flying her back in the cabin to Paris then finally by road to the UK. She had her regular health inoculations in the U.K. plus blood tests (she is very fit and well) then was spayed. She is delightful; so loving and affectionate despite living the first ten months or so on the streets, she follows me all round the house, although she still has her wild/manic moments where I see the “feral”side coming out! She is clearly a good hunter, but she would never have survived in Greece as when I picked her up, she’d got a paw injury fir which she needed antibiotics and removal of the stone that had lodged itself in to her paw. And of course, she was so tiny and hungry at first, she literally couldn’t stop eating for the first few weeks. I’d say get in touch with the cat and dog charities when you’re on holiday in Greece, help them with donations towards neutering costs and food; that can really make a difference. And don’t discount trying to see if you can rehome.